French President-elect Emmanuel Macron told President Donald Trump he would “protect” the Paris climate change agreement during their first phone conversation Monday.
“He told him he’s going to try to protect what was made in Paris,” Macron’s spokeswoman Laurence Haim told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Monday.
“He is going to protect the climate agreement,” Haim said.
Macron won a landslide victory against nationalist Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s election, and promised to reform the country’s labor laws and double-down on promises to fight global warming.
Macron and Trump spoke for about 10 minutes Monday, according to Haim. The spokeswoman said Macron was “excited” to work with Trump and they spoke on important issues, like terrorism, the economy and global warming.
“Again, it was not a very deep conversation,” Haim said. “It was the first time they spoke together.”
Haim said Macron was “happy” with how the call with Trump went. The call came before White House officials were set to meet, once again, to discuss whether or not to stay in the Paris agreement, which President Barack Obama joined in 2016.
That meeting was postponed at the last minute because Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could not be there. Tillerson, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are lead Trump administration officials in favor of sticking with the Paris agreement.
Pro-Paris Trump officials have been bolstered by multinational corporations and European leaders who’ve been lobbying the administration to stay in the agreement that was hashed out in Paris, France in 2015.
European leaders said they would stay in the Paris agreement even if the U.S. pulled out, but the loss of the world’s largest economy and second-largest greenhouse gas emitter would be a huge blow.
Trump is expected to make a decision soon, and news reports suggest the president will make good on his campaign pledge to withdraw from the Paris agreement.
Macron intends to keep France’s pledge to the United Nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030, but the president-elect also suggested implementing a $110 per ton carbon tax and getting more energy from solar and wind power.
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